Gang Bangers

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"I keep ya weak! Comin' from the streets of the ghetto, At the end of the week, I get to keep your dinero! You're fast asleep when I sneak in your casa. Now you're bankrupt, your life sucks and I'm laughin'. You can't trust me, ese, because I'm Latin! I don't care if you don't like me, everybody wanna fight me."

— One of the verses of Viva La Raza, known to WWE fans as Eddie Guerrero's theme music

Members of a youth street-gang whose behavior usually involves various criminal activities, including drug dealing, killing members of other groups, and vandalizing buildings by painting graffiti tags. May or may not commit rapes note despite the other meaning of banging gangs, as usually members of youth gangs have little trouble getting girlfriends who like the excitement and danger, some of whom are in girl gangs and killing their competitors too.

Gangbangers often fill the same role as The Mafia, but fit into a different archetype. Gangbangers are usually poor criminals, disorganized mobs who patrol ghettos, selling crack and getting into fights with rival gangs just for the hell of it, whereas Mafias are intelligent, very wealthy, diplomatic, often have connections to "legitimate" authorities, and more likely to plan assassinations and ambushes than just go around getting into fights. The two can overlap, but the distinctive dress will usually make the difference clear; Mafiosi wear suits, ties, sunglasses and (if period-appropriate) fedoras, while gangbangers wear head bandanas, wifebeaters and torn jeans.

The Irish Mob can be either depicted as period-appropriate gangbangers or as a kind of Mafia (though don't ever call them that), depending on time period, location, and the creator's opinions. For instance, the Irish gangs (and all the other gangs, for that matter) in Gangs of New York were the 19th-century equivalent of today's Bloods and Crips (they did wear top hats, but toppers were not considered highbrow in the 19th century and in fact carried the opposite connotation). The Irish Mob in The Departed, however, was much more Mafia-like.

As a nod to the lack of precision or training, they will typically use their weapons Gangsta Style. White Gangbangers is what happens when the Unfortunate Implications are avoided intentionally, though often unrealistically (unless it's a white country with white gangbangers, like Russia—the Russian ones are called gopniki, singular gopnik, by the way).

Examples:

Various gangs in Banana Fish, some more ethnically diverse than others. In particular, protagonist Ash runs a gang that includes white, black, and Asian members, which is noted as being unusual.

Peepo Choo has as a major character a deranged Yakuza boss named "Rockstar" Morimoto, who is obsessed with his own pop-culture-derived idea of the African-American Gang Banger lifestyle and seeks to imitate it in every way.

K has HOMRA, a superpowered group with members that style themselves this way.

Sin City has street gangs that pop up from time to time. Considering this is Frank Miller, the street gangs are sometimes Nazis.

The Purple Dragons were a New York street gang that appeared in the Ninja Turtles comics. They would later appear in many of the Turtles animated series.

Since it's set in The Big Rotten Apple, gang bangers feature prominently in the Marvel Comics miniseries, NYX. Protagonist Kiden Nixon's police officer father is killed in front of her by one in a drive-by shooting when she's a child. She later runs afoul of Hector, a student at her school with gang connections. A Corrupt Cop manning the school's metal detectors is a member of the same gang, and is bribed into letting Hector smuggle in a gun with which to try and kill her, and which really starts the main plot in motion. Bobby Soul is strongly implied to have been one in the past, though he's trying to escape that life. Lastly, this sort makes up a large majority of Zebra Daddy's gang when he sends them to collect one of his runaway prostitutes, and it's revealed in the finale that Daddy himself was the gang banger who gunned down Kiden's father.

Regularly appear in The Punisher, though they understandably get very little development before their grisly deaths.

Fan Works

In Origin Story, Marvin, Louise Fulford's one-time pimp, is a member of the LA Crips. When Alex Harris beats the man down for trying to hurt Louise, Aaron Sanchez expresses worry that when Marvin's gang comes seeking vengeance, Alex might not always be around.

The Warriors, features a whole bunch of them. Some are realistic, others are more cartoonish.

Subverted by American Gangster. Frank Lucas' gang is well-organized, reasonably disciplined, innovative, and entirely made up of African-Americans. It's actually a minor plot point that a law enforcement agent giving Richie a hard time didn't buy his story because he refused to believe that a black organization could outperform the Italian mafia. He then called Richie a kike.

Mr Nice Guy, starring Jackie Chan, had a posse of gang bangers called the 'Demons' that run afoul of Jackie and the Mafia, getting their asses kicked by the first, and then ground up by the latter over a dispute of some stolen merchandise.

The War: The're too young to be a true gang but the kids are on the threshold where they will become gangs if something doesn't change.

One group of gangbangers at the beginning of Die Hard with a Vengeance sees McClane wearing a sandwich board with a racist slur on it and respond with violence. Only by Carver's intervention does McClane make it out of there alive.

In Fast Five, a reasonably well armed gang try to move on Brian and Mia-and later Hobbs' team-when they enter the favela. First time, Vince (who's presumably a close associate if not in the gang himself) calls them off. Second time, Hobbs and his crew just flash their military grade fire power and the gang wisely backs off.

Boulevard Nights: The Chicano gangs of 1979 East Los Angeles. Raymond, the good brother with ambitions of opening a car repair shop, is desperate to stop his loser brother Chuco from getting caught up with the gangs and gang violence.

In Bridge of Spies, Donovan encounters these in East Berlin, who steal his coat.

Literature

The Jill Kismet series takes place in an Urban Fantasy Southwestern city called Santa Luz, so the gangs are mostly Latino. The barrio is noted as a place where it's not safe to be white like Jill, though the city's Weres (mostly of Native American stock) also inhabit the barrio and the gangs know better than to mess with them. In book four, Jill takes Gilberto, a gang member who lost his brother to a Dirty Cop in book three, as her apprentice.

Live Action Tv

Hill Street Blues was one of the first shows to include them as a recurring plot element, as well as one of the more rounded portrayals.

Lincoln Heights has a black gang and a Latino gang. There was even one episode that had a white supremacist street gang based on the Aryan Brotherhood. Most likely an honest mistake, since the Aryans are a prison gang, not a street gang, and the fact that no white surpremacist gang would EVER set up operations in a black and Latino neighborhood.

Half the cast of The Wire. Subverted in that the gangs are highly organized (even the lower-level guys are shown to be at least competent, if not intelligent), moderately disciplined, innovative, and tend to be run either by Machiavellian businessmen taking college courses in macroeconomics (Stringer Bell) or ruthless, power-hungry sociopaths (Marlo Stanfield). Oh, and they have white gangbangers shown in Season 2, much to the disgust of the Polish community and Nick Sobotka in particular.

In the The Walking Dead episode "Vatos", at first the trope seems to be being played straight, but it turns out that they're really just acting that way to protect an old folks home whose residents were abandoned by the staff when the zombie apocalypse hit.

The One-Niners in Sons of Anarchy, a series centering around a California based Outlaw Motorcycle Club. In later seasons they are co-opted by the Damon Pope syndicate, which is a more professional mafia-type organization.

In Season 11 of Degrassi Drew kills one who was attempting to rape Bianca, leading to the gang pursuing him.

CSI: NY had the Tanglewood Boys on two occasions. They're the sons of mafia members and still rather connected to it, but tend more toward typical gangbanger tendencies themselves. Based on a real group, though they're now pretty much defunct.

Appear occasionally as minor characters in the Paris-set cop show Engrenages, and then the fifth season heavily features a small group of racially-integrated female Gang Bangers who are just as violent and ruthless as the male variety.

Professional Wrestling

The spicy latino? It is seemingly becoming a forgotten trope in the continental United States. The Masked Luchador, those have been on the decline since the largest company in the country set out to unmask them all. This is/was the most common gimmick of 2000-2010+, going through at least one angle with heavy overtones of gangsterism seems to be a right of passage among Latin Americans who work in USA. As the page quote shows, not even Latino Heat was immune.

Lynx and El Niche, Los Fugitivos de la Calle, were examples of this long before they came to Future Of Wrestling in the continental US though.

Likewise "El Illegal" Chicano had been at it long before he showed up in the 50 states at Ring of Honor.

The Gangstas New Jack and Mustafa. D'Lo Brown came later. Their gimmick being gang bangers who took to professional wrestling after they ran out of opponents to beat on the street, namely someone told them to go try and beat up The Rock 'n' Roll Express.

The WWE version of the FBI Full Blooded Italians, Chuck Palumbo in particular.

The nWo, while not always described in such terms, always carried themselves in this manner. The group consisted of a leader (Hollywood Hogan) who leads through use of charisma, promise of rewards and fear instilled by way of a few fanatically loyal enforcers. (The Outsiders, Hall and Nash) Its members wore colors and uniforms that held significance and were always identified with them. (Black and white) Its members were beaten if they failed (Buff Bagwell) or sometimes just as a hypothetical example. (Brutus Beefcake) In general, they celebrated a criminal lifestyle; to wit theft, vandalism, general destruction of property and assault, and would generally be seen as a corrupting influence on the industry as a whole.

There were also many derivative and imitations of the nWo, the latino World order being one of the earliest.

NWA World Tag Team Champions, AJ Steele and Murder-1, better known as "The Usual Suspects".

The Premier Athlete Brand of Evolve and Dragon Gate USA accused AR Fox of being an example of this trope and were greatly dismayed that he was teaming with their desired prospect, Uhaa Nation.

The first thing we see of Los Rabiosos in the World Wrestling League? Their masked faces on a wanted poster. Granted, it was from seven years ago and they were much more politically minded than most examples. Mr. Big and Noel Rodríguez seemed to have had mostly moved past it, Dennis Rivera, not so much.

Warhammer 40,000: A common feature of Hive Worlds such as Necromunda, which often sprawl into tunnel networks down into the earth and are far too large to effectively police. Gang members are often desperate, ruthless and accustomed to violence and so are potentially very good Imperial Guardsmen; the really tough hombres end up recruited into Space Marine chapters.

CJ and his crew, as well as most of the early antagonists in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Grove Street Families is loosely based on Lime Street Pirus (a bloods offshoot that wore green), Ballaz is based on Grape Street Watts Crips (a off shoot of the crips that wore purple), Vagos on 18th Street Gang.

Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV is occupied by a few street gangs along with larger, better-organized groups.

The Red Jacks and Purple Nines in Grand Theft Auto III. Who, though being stand-ins for the Bloods and Crips, happily walked around side by side and attacked the player if he attacked one of the other gang.

Franklin from Grand Theft Auto V grew up in this type of enviroment and as such is trying to not only escape from this type of lifestyle but also convince some of his gangbanger buddies to do the same with little to no luck...

The gangs of lower Taris in Knights of the Old Republic. One was more focused on honor and gang loyalty than usual for the trope, the other was mostly a bunch of berserkers with little other ambition. Older members of the second gang will tell the player they used to be more like the first until a recent leadership change.

The first game features a four way gang war between the protagonist Third Street Saints, the car enthusiast Westside Rollerz, the Colombian backed Los Carnales and the Vice Kings, who run the gambling, prostitution and pornography rings.

Saints Row 2 has the Third Street Saints trying to reclaim the city from three new gangs. The Brotherhood loves tattoos and monster trucks, the Sons of Samedi are run by a Haitian voodoo priest who deals in Loa Dust and the Ronin are a Yakuza inspired gang that ride motorcycles and wield katanas.

The Manhattan subways of Deus Ex are ruled by a gang called the Rooks.

Human Revolution shows two rival Detroit gangs, the Motor City Bangers (pro-augmentation) and the Derelict Row Ballers (anti-augmentation). There are also the Hengsha based Harvesters who have a reputation for, well, harvesting augmentations from their victims.

The Water Street Boys gang and the Jade Gang in Sleeping Dogs are two such rival gangs within the Sun On Yee, although the Water Street Boys are more "purely" so. Their in-game profile states that their leader Winston Chu and his minions lack the brains to actually accomplish anything more than street-level crimes, which puts them below other Sun On Yee officers who are involved in bigger ventures

The plot of Max Payne 3 is kicked off by favela thugs trying to kidnap Max's principal. They come back for seconds and Max keeps clashing with them, though they eventually get superseded by better-equipped foes.

The Kings in Fallout: New Vegas could count as one of these, as well as any of the raider groups.

In Mass Effect, a Commander Shepard with the Earthborn background managed to get out of this life. His/her gang was apparently called the Tenth Street Reds, and at one point in the first game his/her old gang leader Finch will try to blackmail Shepard into using his/her Spectre status to get another member, charged with hate crimes, out of a turian jail.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has bandits whose modus operandi has them act typically this way, though there are no instances and/or implications of raping in the games. Since the games take place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, these bandits are gopniki and have loose ties with The Mafiya. They do have charismatic leaders who act like stereotypical avtoritets, making them a rather moderately organized quasi-Mafiya outfit.

Pokémon of all games now has them. Team Skull, the villain team of Pokémon Sun and Moon are a mish-mash of this, Punk culture and Japanese Delinquents. Their gesticulation, speech patterns, and attire, as well as their more informal tone compared to previous villain groups, make them resemble American street gangs. Specifically, their tanned skin tone, as well as the fact that Guzma and Plumeria are named after plants prominent in Central and South America, gives them a resemblance to Latino street gangs from the West Coast. Unlike most villain teams of the series, they are far less ambitious in their villainy, being primarily failed trainers who commit petty crimes (usually Pokemon theft) in order to survive and are largely seen as annoyances more than anything.

EarthBound Beginnings has the Bla-Bla Gang (or B.B. Gang) of Ellay, led by the Delinquent Teddy. They attack when spoken to in Ellay if Teddy isn't in the party, and Teddy himself is introduced barging in to ask who's been beating up the members of his gang. They're subject to some Bowdlerization in the English version and later Japanese versions: They no longer smoke cigarettes in their battle sprites.

The Gang Zombie enemies in EarthBound Beginnings are the reanimated, malevolent corpses of these. Their sprite was Bowdlerised in the English version (and subsequent Japanese versions) as well, with them losing the bullet holes riddling their chests and no longer having the blood-stained shirts they have in the original Famicom version of the game.

The Sharks of EarthBound are something of a Lighter and Softer version of this; they're a group of "ruffians" (comprised mostly of children, as it seems) led by Frank Fly that cause trouble in the protagonist's hometown Onett, barring the entrances to certain places and serving as the main enemies for the protagonist, Ness, to fight at the beginning of the game.

Web Original

In The Gamer's Alliance, the Nightstalkers are a gang of young thugs with big plans for rising up in the Maar Sulais criminal hierarchy.

ASH: there are lots and lots of these, some with themes like "all-cyborg" or "voodoo-esque powers". Pretty much all of them have exclusively paranormal membership. Hard to compete with people who can shoot lightning and throw cars when you can't.

Community

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